## XVIII

**Compiled by:**
V. V. Adoratsky, V. M. Molotov,
M. A. Savelev

SOCEKGIZ
M–L
1931

**V. I. Lenin in the Presidium of the First All-Russian Congress of Land Departments, Committees of the Poor, and Agricultural Communes**

December 11, 1918, Moscow
Hall of Columns of the House of Unions

## PREFACE.

In the "Lenin Miscellanies" published up to the present time, the works of Vladimir Ilyich contained mainly materials from the pre-October period. The "Lenin Miscellany" XVIII consists, almost entirely, with the exception of minor omissions, of documents and materials characterizing Lenin's activity as leader and organizer of the proletarian dictatorship during the eighteen months following the October Revolution (until March 1919). The Miscellany illuminates in considerable detail, principally that aspect of Lenin's work as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars which demonstrates his leadership of the working class's struggle for bread in 1918–1919. The development of the foundations of food policy, the organization, in connection with the struggle for bread, of the poor, the implementation of an alliance with the middle peasants, the organization of "merciless and terroristic struggle and war against the peasant and other bourgeoisie hoarding surplus grain," the implementation of a series of concrete practical measures in the struggle against famine and counter-revolution, and finally, the policy of Soviet power toward cooperatives—such is the principal content of the Miscellany.

Large documents by Vladimir Ilyich in the Miscellany are comparatively few; predominating are brief notes, telegrams, business letters, concise drafts of decrees and other materials, which contain not only a series of principled positions, but also characterize at the same time the everyday "routine" work of Vladimir Ilyich as a director of the "current work" of the Council of People's Commissars.

Alongside Lenin's documents, the editorial board deemed it necessary to allot a certain place in the Miscellany also to those documents (for instance, decrees) which, although not written by Lenin himself, were written on the basis of and in development of theses adopted at Lenin's proposal and thus vividly demonstrate how and in what form the propositions of Vladimir Ilyich were reproduced and refracted in Soviet legislation, in the official acts of the Soviet government.

The publication of the present Miscellany by no means exhausts the Lenin archive for the period named above; other aspects of Lenin's activity in 1918–1919, his work in the sphere of industry, public education, military affairs, and others, will be illuminated in subsequent Miscellanies.

From materials of the pre-October period, the Miscellany includes several letters by Vladimir Ilyich from 1911, illustrating his attitude toward reconciliationism and toward reconciliationists.

The Miscellany, with the exception of the 1911 letters, was prepared for publication by B. Lavler. The 1911 letters were prepared by K. Ostroukkhova under the general direction of D. Baevsky.

The immediate editorial work on the Miscellany was conducted by V. Sorin.

## THE STRUGGLE OF BOLSHEVISM AGAINST RECONCILIATIONISM